Newish laptop runs AGS games slooooow. Ideas?

[PStache]

Hey AGS community!

I've been playing AGS games for a couple years now and LOVE them.  Unfortunately, I got a new laptop and the performance on the games is just awful.  I've tried everything I can think of to no avail.  This performance issue has been pretty consistent across all the games I've tried, from Art of Theft to Nanobots to Rockabilly.  I've been using Rockabilly as a test game because the awesome music makes it pretty clear that the game is running slow.  More info below.  Any ideas?  Couldn't find anything similar on the boards.  I need my AGS fix!  :-)

Symptoms: (using Rockabilly Kid as example)
Music is sloooow, then speeds up, then is sloooow again.
Animation clearly speeds up/slows down with the music.
Animation can slow to the point of being unplayable.
No performance issues on this laptop with desktop applications.  Other than AGS, I don't play games on this laptop.

Things I've tried:
Killed all unnecessary OS processes.
Exited all other programs.
Changed resolution on the game to the lowest setting.
Changed graphics drivers between Direct3D and DirectDraw
Turned off the graphics filter
Turned off the sound options (no digital sound)
Set the CPU affinity on the game's OS process so that it only uses one CPU, or the other.
Set the OS process so it has 'realtime' priority.
Ran all HP and Intel diagnostics tools I could find (everything checks out OK on the CPU and performance)
Updated to latest CPU, sound and video drivers.

Laptop specs:
HP EliteBook 6930p
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T9400 @ 2.53GHz, Chipset 2917
Bus 1066 MHz
L2 Cache Memory 6MB
3GB RAM
Video: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
Sound: SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio

THANKS!

[poc301]

What OS?  Windows 7?

I would imagine (based on problems with other legacy drivers) that games made in older versions of AGS might have problems running in Windows 7.

-Bill

[PStache]

Ha, all that info and I forgot the OS.  :-)

It's actually Windows XP Professional.

[OneDollar]

Some questions that spring to mind...
-When an AGS game is running, how much memory and CPU usage is showing against the process in the task manager?
-Does it make a difference if you run the games in full screen or in windowed mode?
-Have you tried any games made with really old versions of AGS (5 Days a Stranger for example) and are they the same?
-Have you tried any of the Windows compatibility options?
-What virus/malware scanners do you have installed?
-Are you running XP Service Pack 3? (Shouldn't make a difference, but, you know).

This sounds like a difficult one to troubleshoot, good luck

[PStache]

OneDollar - Which Windows compatibility options should I try playing with?

Yes, this one has been difficult to troubleshoot, which is why I wanted to ask the collective minds of this board.

Again using Rockabilly Kid as the example...
- Rockabilly process uses about 3-6% of the CPU and 13,600K of memory.  Without killing/exiting from everything else I have running, my machine has almost 2GB of RAM free, and a page file of about 800MB.
- A very quick test of 5 Days a Stranger seemed fine.  But the Art of Theft definitely seems to speed up and slow down.
-  VS: I'm running McAfee VirusScan Enterprise Workstation 8.7, Agent Version 4.0 with AntiSpyware.  The settings on the laptop won't let me disable the on-demand scanning.
- Yes, WinXP Service Pack 3

Could it simply be my company doesn't want me playing AGS games on my work laptop? :-)  If I get a chance, I'll ask someone with the same laptop build around here to try and run some of the games and see if they have the same issue - it should at least tell me if it's just me or it's some general HW/config issue with these laptop builds.

Thanks!

[Layabout]

Since you mentioned Nanobots, I thought I'd give it a try. In Windows 7 pro x64 it runs like a dream. Using 3-6% of the cpu sounds about right, and so does the ram (Nanobots used 32mb when I ran it)

My first guess would be the virus software, but since you can't disable it (i'm guessing something to do with being a company laptop yes?) then this is something you can't test. It's a decent laptop, there should be no reason it doesn't work. I'd recommend to your company they stop using a 9 year old operating system too.

Definatly try running it in a window.

[Crimson Wizard]

Not sure if this relevant. I am using laptop too, though older one with lower capabilities (I have Vista HP though).
I noticed that certain games run slow sometimes, there's jerking and lagging. They actually run better  in window. But what's really amusing, their performance does improve when I disable sound in game. If they were some DOS games run in DOSBox, I would understand that, but they are modern AGS games.

[PStache]

Thanks all.

Running in a window seems to help, but not enough to make the games playable. 

I'm going to chalk this issue up to some combination of (1) the anti-virus I can't turn off (2) the hard-drive encryption software that adds overhead to absolutely everything running on the machine and (3) karma, for trying to play AGS games on my work laptop.

Meanwhile, I got a new HP laptop for Xmas that runs AGS great, so problem solved...or at least generally avoided.  :-)

Happy New Year!

[patbob]

I know you solved your issue with a new laptop, but there's a few things worth trying if someone else has the problem and finds this thread...

The power scheme you use, and whether you boot the laptop plugged into the AC or on batteries, can have an effect on its performance.  Some of the internal flags twiddled by the power schemes are sticky and the only way to get them set consistently from use to use is to do a full reboot of the laptop after each change.

I'm sure YMMV applies, but this has been my experience debugging weird software performance issues for wok.